Indiana State AFL-CIO President Brett Voorhies issued the following statement this evening in reaction to Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s announcement tonight that he would seek re-election in 2016:

“On behalf of the 300,000 working men and women who are represented by the Indiana State AFL-CIO and all Hoosiers who work for a living, my reaction to Mike Pence seeking a second term as our governor is: No, thank you. We’ve had enough.

As is done every year, the Indiana AFL-CIO, with the help of our affiliates, has complied a scorecard for the 2015 session of the Indiana General Assembly.

This Legisatlive Scorecard tracks and scores key votes made by the members of the Indiana General Assembly in 2015. These votes, along with votes taken in other legislative sessions, will impact organized labor's endorsement of candidates in the 2016 elections.

According to the AFL-CIO’s annual Executive PayWatch report, released this morning, Indiana S&P 500 CEOs made an average of $12,556,710 in 2014 – 306 times more than the average Hoosier worker who earned an average of $41,033 over the same period. Read more >>>

Income inequality became a hot topic of economic conversation in 2014, and publications like The Atlantic have taken notice. In 17 Things We Learned About the Economy in 2014, the authors explore the growth of low-income jobs, stagnant wages for families and shrinking wages for younger workers, the racial and gender wage gap, taxes and the dwindling middle class.

Fifteen years ago, there were roughly 17 million American manufacturing jobs. Today the number of those manufacturing jobs, which pay a significant wage premium for middle-skill workers without a college degree, is closer to 12 million. In Indiana alone, one out of every five manufacturing jobs disappeared during that time.

Nowadays there are a lot more of us working in minimum-wage retail positions at places like Wal-mart.